Month: May 2018

FIs spend most of their marketing dollars on account acquisition. In fact, in 2017, the US financial services industry will have spent $10.1 billion on digital advertising, a 13.1% gain from 2016, according to eMarketer.But for all this spend there’s been almost no innovation in this space. And that lack of innovation is losing customers and costing FIs millions. It’s time that FI’s begin to ask:

Is there a better model?

How can the account opening process be improved upon for an easier flow for the end user?

In a previous post, TradeIt conducted time trials to open a new brokerage account on mobile. Completion of those applications ranged from 6 to a staggering 12 minutes. So what were the pain points and causes of abandonment?

Too complex

Too many steps

Took too long

Required information not readily available

The biggest challenge in a mobile age is that none of the account opening processes are “native to iOS” (or Android) and all require users to go to a responsive web application that’s driven from the 20-year old Affiliate link model that was designed for desktop. So, with each additional minute and extra field to complete, or with clunky mobile interfaces, the number of completed applications falls significantly. There goes your sales funnel…and your profits.

At the Benzinga Global FinTech Awards last week, the big brokers spoke about the need for innovation. TD Ameritrade cited:

40% of their trading is happening on mobile

They are doing 250,000 trades/day

The brokers on the panel—which included TD Ameritrade, Schwab, Interactive Brokers and TradeStation—agreed that constant innovation was a necessity in an age when retail brokers interfaces are being compared to Amazon and Google for being clean, easy and intuitive. As we highlighted in a post last year, 72% of millennials would rather bank with Google, Facebook or Amazon than their existing financial institution. The mobile experience is key to this and easy interfaces are what will get them to visit and stick around.

Quick and Easy

What Robinhood, Acorns, and Stash get right with their native/mobile-enabled tools is to allow users to open an account in under 5 minutes. Why? Because those tools were built from the ground up with mobile—and the end user—in mind. They know what’s important when looking at customer acquisition and creating that experience:

Hone: Get the message right

Streamline the process: avoid pitfalls that will cause potential clients to abandon the flow

Focus: Only include the must-have know-your-customer components

Make it native: If you do one thing and one thing only, make it native

We’re going to talk about screen-scraping again. Because we think it’s so important to be aware of what this means for both consumers and FI’s. You can get more background on the process of screen-scraping and what it means for the future of banking as well as the importance of API’s and innovation in our previous posts here, here and here.

One of the ways screen-scrapers are getting access to customer data is through a halo effect.

Screen-scrapers are using logos to build trust and credibility and then turning around and selling the data they’ve so trustfully obtained. By using the logos and trademarks from financial institutions, it engenders trust among the end users who associate the brand of Broker X with their money and the security that their financial institution provides. However, most FIs have not in fact granted permission or rights to the screen-scraper for them to use the logos in the first place. The trust of the logo makes an association for the end user, but this is an abuse of the institution’s mark and negatively impacts the end user and the institution itself.

The Anti Trust

Let’s be honest, most Americans aren’t enamored with big banks or financial institutions these days. However, seeing a logo of a familiar name in one of their finance apps will undoubtedly create a feeling of assurance that things are on the up and up; that their information is safe. As an end user, we’re putting our faith and trust in the visual association of the broker or bank brand on a third party site. And in this case, that trust is unfounded.

I Didn’t Sign Up for This

When this logo appears, it signals to the end user a perception of the financial institution’s endorsement of the technology, thus they willingly link their account. As we’ve argued in previous posts, the screen-scraper can then go in and grab their data — any of their data — and use it and sell it. These companies are selling that data many times over, charging their partners per linked user. But where’s the end user’s cut of the profit? And how many places are they selling it to?

Millions of Customers + 1000s of Companies = Millions of Screens Scraped and Countless Data Points Up for Grabs

An Ounce of Prevention

Luckily, all is not lost. Companies like Fidelity and Ally are ensuring their information is secure and are increasingly moving towards APIs for third parties to access their clients’ data. In fact, TradeIt’s SDK specifically helps partners integrate our technology, allowing their developers to integrate faster with simple customizations. This ensures the end user that they’re protected and gives them total control over what happens to their data. By partnering with brokers to access their APIs, TradeIt only accesses the information that the broker makes available.

Here’s how it works:

Through a broker’s API, we allow the end user to log into their brokerage account securely.

We don’t view, access or retain their log-in credentials.

After the user consents, the broker provides an encrypted token.

This token will expire, and once it does, the connection is severed.

In order to continue to view their portfolio and/or send buy or sell orders from their favorite app to their broker, the end user will need to relink their account.

Safety First

How this differs from traditional screen-scraping is simple: we don’t retain log-in credentials and continue to access and scrape the end user’s data however we see fit. Their information is not available to us. Nor should it be. Not only is this safer in the event of a data breach, it provides true trust with the end user. We only show the logos of brokers with their permission.

But, as we move into more transparency around banking, brokers are embracing this change. TradeIt has consent pages and end-user agreements that explicitly inform the investor that we’re accessing their data on their behalf. It’s more than just a logo, its an agreement between the broker and the third party. This puts the end user at the forefront, not on the backburner. Which is where they should be in the first place. After all, it’s their information.